- Stanley Milgram
There has been an abundance of media portrayals of police brutality and the holes that still grow in the fabric of America's justice system. The most recent is the death and alleged murder of Sandra Bland. I admit that I am not fully competent on my knowledge of our government or the law, but I have the basic knowledge as an american citizen. I cannot draw conclusions myself on whether this lady was murdered or committed suicide inside her jail cell. I have the brain of a scientist and need evidence before ever making a conclusion. However, I can be certain of one thing: A minor lane change driving violation is not a basis for arrest. Refusal to not speak to a police officer is a right outline by the 5th amendment. Refusal to remain in your car is a right. Asking why you are under arrest is not resisting arrest. You can only resist arrest when there is a premises for your arrest. This leads to the topic of today's blog. The Power of Pompous Authority.
Some may argue that she should have just complied to the officers orders and everything would have been fine. I personally don't understand why that is ever 'okay'. We give away certain freedoms in trade of order and protection under the government. Have the citizens of America forgotten that we have rights? When you say "No" to someone of authority, and you have the lawful right to do so, why should we be scared? Instead of feeling protection when police are around, why are some people more afraid? This seems counter intuitive to what my knowledge of a justice system should be. It also bothers me that, soon, this story will be forgotten. Like everything viral on social media, it only last for weeks but not years. This is why we are not pushing forward but sitting on our chairs hoping the world will push itself without it's own feet. I am not saying I have a solution for the problem of injustice and misuse of authority. We can fill the holes of our system with ceramic so that is is a strong system, but ceramic is brittle and breaks under stress. We can fill it with metal so that is is not as brittle, but metal bends. We can fill it with polymer so that it is malleable, but polymer is weak. A solution to our current criminal system is not a 1 day solution. It takes effort and consensus. But, it's when we all forget these problems, that these problems continue to grow. When we forget about Sandra Bland, "we forget that she was a person".
With that being said, I am not accusing all police of brutality. I hear the term "fuck the police" way too often. Just because there is media coverage of these incidence of power abuse, does not mean that all of the police in america are terrible, power hungry, racist, discriminating individuals ready to hunt you down because they don't like you. If you believe that one persons actions cannot account for everyone's character and you think that all police are terrible, you are a hypocrite. Yes, there are pompous, arrogant, power hungry authority figures out there. That is an unfortunate fact in all societies. However people should not generalize so quickly on the character of a group of people based on the actions of a few. There are police men who risk their lives on duty in order to protect us and I feel that they should be respected.
People often associate media coverage as if everything is going bad. For example a plane crash incidents leads to many people avoiding flights because they have the mindset that planes have a higher chance of crashing. The honest truth is that there are still planes flying, and the rate of crashes has not increased. We are scared by our own media but forget to realize that the news is a business. They report whats interesting to the people and what will generate the most views. Just because there has been an upward trend of stories such as this, does not mean that violence, racism, discrimination, and police brutality are rising. It has always happened and always will happen until we all make a congruent effort to change what is wrong.
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